That is because the result of the coming referendum on EU
membership is not legally binding.

On Monday, Peter Catterall of the University of Westminster spoke
with Business Insider to shed more light on why Brexiteers would
inevitably be very disappointed by what would follow a Leave
victory in the referendum.

"I think that most Leave voters expect to wake up on the 24th no
longer in the EU if there is a Brexit vote," Catterall told
Business Insider. "Well, they’re going to be in for a shock."

For Britain to begin withdrawing from the 28-nation bloc, the
government would need to invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty.
The majority of Leave voters probably assume that this process
would be triggered immediately, but that would probably not be
the case.

If Prime Minister David Cameron invokes Article 50, the
government will have two years to negotiate with the EU over the
terms of the withdrawal (the period can be extended through a
common agreement between the EU and the member state leaving).
Pro-Brexit members of Parliament including Michael Gove have said
they wouldn't want to invoke Article 50 for at least two years
because it would take that long to find out what sort of deal
they could reach before they enter negotiations, Catterall
said.

Catterall said: "It's not just pro-EU Tories who have talked
about delaying Article 50. People like Michael Gove have said
that they wouldn't want to implement the Article 50 procedure
until at least 2018 because they think it would take a very long
time to get things sorted."

He added: "Cameron did initially say he would invoke Article 50
immediately following a Leave vote. I haven't noticed him
reiterating this recently, and if he did, he would only increase
the chances of a disorderly Brexit. A postreferendum government
would be foolish to trigger Article 50 until they have some sense
of what kind of deal they can get and what life outside the EU
might look like."

Interestingly, Catterall told Business Insider that even if the
government manages to put together some form of post-Brexit
agreement, it will most likely be a highly compromised version as
opposed to the total exit from the EU that Leave voters want and
expect.

"Michael Gove said the other day that there will be 'bumps in the
road,' and I think this disingenuous of him," he said.

"At the very least, it'll be a lengthy process of negotiating
these things, and if you want to keep some sort of trade deal
with the EU, then the chances are we'll end up with something
which will be not too dissimilar from what we've already got. The
problem is that because Leave has no clear idea among themselves
about how they will deliver a Brexit the chances are it is not
going to happen."

If this is the case, then Leave voters will feel as if they have
been deceived by how a Brexit has been sold to them by
campaigners. "They (Leave) haven't been honest with their
supporters about what they actually can and cannot deliver,"
Catterall said. "They've willfully misled them."

One of the major arguments pro-Brexit campaigners cite for taking
the country out of the EU is that doing so will enhance national
democracy. This is because a British Parliament outside the EU
would no longer have to adhere to the regulations imposed by EU
law.

Yui Mok / PA Wire /Press Association
Images

Catterall said, however, that for the government to arrange a
complete post-Brexit deal by 2018 it would have to employ some of
the most undemocratic parliamentary apparatus available to it.

"The great irony with a Brexit is that once Article 50 is
triggered you've only got two years to sort this out and the
chances are that you will have to use what we call Henry the
Eighth clauses to drive through legislation."

Henry VIII clauses refer to clauses that allow primary
legislation to be amended and repealed without permission from
Parliament.

"You've got people calling for a Brexit because they think it
will make Britain more democratic, yet it would require less
democratic parliamentary procedures to ram through the changes
that will be required," Catterall said.

What is becoming increasingly clear is that the notion of Britain
fully withdrawing from the EU in the coming years is very
unrealistic no matter how the public votes on Thursday.